The present invention relates to the field of entertainment systems. Specifically, the present invention relates to graphical user interfaces (GUI) in entertainment systems that display entertainment system data.
A current trend in the electronics and computer industry is the convergence of computer systems and more traditional entertainment system components. As this convergence continues, more components in these systems will be combined together resulting in an increase in entertainment selections and entertainment system data available to users.
Current mechanisms for storing and providing entertainment system data to users are component specific. For example, programming guides made available by many cable companies provide some entertainment system data relating to programming selections available to the users. Typically, the programming guides provide an on-screen display of programming information for channels supported by the cable system. The programming guides, however, do not store or display entertainment system data from sources other than the cable company to the user. Thus, for example, if a user""s entertainment system includes a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) receiver, a vertical blanking interval (VBI) decoder, a modem, or a video library, the entertainment system data from these sources and entertainment system data of entertainment selections from these sources would not be available to the user on the cable system""s programming guide. In addition, the programming guides typically display limited information about a program selection. The information is usually limited to the title of the programming selection, agent 310 manages the organization and retrieval of the entertainment system data in the database 320, and presents the entertainment system data to users. The system control agent 310 includes a data parser 311, data engine 312, and query interface 313.
A graphical user interface for displaying entertainment system data according to an embodiment of the present invention is disclosed. The graphical user interface includes a first multimedia identifier that is selectable to deliver entertainment system data stored at a first location relating to an entertainment selection. The graphical user interface also includes a second multimedia identifier that is selectable to deliver entertainment system data stored at a second location relating to the entertainment selection.